via NYC Transit on Twitter
Dec. 24, 2018 By Christian Murray
The MTA will not be providing 7 train service between Queensboro Plaza and 34 St-Hudson Yards on most weeknights during January and February—as well as for four weekends in January, the agency announced Friday night.
The abrupt announcement comes after nearly a decade of service changes and other interruptions on the line due to a massive signal system upgrade that was completed last month.
The MTA said that it discovered that some of the track needs to be replaced while completing the new signal system. The track work requires chipping out existing concrete, the installation of a temporary track structure and the pouring of new concrete.
The MTA assures riders that the track is currently safe but needs to be repaired for future reliability.
“The 7 line is a critical transit artery in Queens and we are doing everything we can to improve its reliability and performance,” said NYC Transit President Any Byford in a statement. “This is work that could not have been completed while we were installing the new signal system and it is absolutely critical it be completed soon.”
The MTA said that it will operate shuttle buses from Queensboro Plaza to Vernon Blvd-Jackson Avenue and from Times Sq to 34th Hudson Yards during the closures. On weekends, W train service with operate between Ditmars Blvd and Whitehall St.
Riders have been complaining about hellish commutes in the past month, despite the completion of the new signal system. It prompted Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer to call on Byford to come to the neighborhood for a town hall and explain the poor service.
A town hall meeting has yet to be scheduled.
The following dates are when service between Queensboro Plaza and 34 St-Hudson Yards will be down.
Work will take place during the following weeknights from 11:45 PM to 5 AM:
January 2-4
January 7-11
January 14-18
January 21-25
January 28-February 1
February 4-8
Work will occur during the following weekends from 12:15 AM Saturday to 4:30 AM Monday:
January 5-7
January 12-14
January 19-21
January 26-28*
*During the weekend of January 26-28, train service will be suspended between 74th St-Broadway and 34 St- Hudson Yards.
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21 Comments
New year, same weekend shutdowns. And if anyone tries to change to the N/W or take those shuttle buses, enjoy the packed crowds of people. This just SUCKS!!!
I always have to wonder if some of these shutdowns are not more about money than repairs – I mean, they COULD make this less painful if they changed the bus schedule so the Q32 ran all night and increase Q60 buses overnight but they never do.
You are right. This would never happen in zip code 10022
What am I supposed to do, walk? I can’t cuz my feet hurt. That’s why I dodged the draft.
I didn’t want to leave my apartment anyway.
This reminds me of the stupidity in the 80s when there was no express service for years while they replaced the tracks between 33rd and 46 street. Once all new tracks were done, they found out that the foundation was bad in the cement and started the whole thing over, ripping up the newly replaced tracks to fix the cement structure, with further years of no express service and temporary station planks to the express track, which had to be local, once again. Such poor management not to have the track people fixing the tracks and cement in another part of the tunnel as others worked on the signal system. Not rocket science!!!
THIS – they wonder why we rip on the MTA so often, it’s piss poor management like this that we are sick of. There needs to be more action, Feds should take over MTA the way they need to take over NYCHA
So no trains between qbp and 34th st. overnights and weekends for a month.
We have to make sure the train is running properly when Amazon gets here!
my guess is that Amazon will make their own rail transportation. nobody wants a 100 year old pile of junk with the same people running it into the ground.
Nah, Amazon will have everyone chained to their desks. Subways not needed.
Why can’t the MTA just be honest and state the its service is terrible and commuters should just get used to it?
Because they are dishonest.
Unacceptable
This is truly unacceptable. Work in the Sunnyside area has been going on for at least 10 years, and in all that time they didn’t notice that many of the tracks had to be replaced and/or repaired? During that last weekend of January 2019, #7 will apparently run only
between downtown Flushing and Jackson Heights.
Presumably, surface “shuttle buses” will be provided
for stations affected.
Like the service wasn’t bad enough. The 7 line is a train wreck, no pun intended.
This is why i bike to work everyday! But sunnyside thinks backwards and prefer pollution cars instead.
what are you talking about? there are electric cars on the road that dont pollute.
*Throws phone across room*
Hopefully they get it right the first time. They did this track replacement some years back ( late 90s early 2000s) and immediately had to break up the new concrete and redo the entire job les than a month after it was installed. Not surprisingly it never made the papers and nobody was held accountable.
lol
Tear the line down!!!!!